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You can find previous episodes of “The Stone Chapel Podcast” at Lanier Theological Library.
“The Stone Chapel Podcast” is part of the ChurchLeaders Podcast Network.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and space.
Mark Lanier
I’m Mark Lanier, the author of the book we’re going to talk about as well as a lawyer and teacher.
David Capes
Mark Lanier, good to see you. Welcome back to the podcast.
Mark Lanier
It’s always a joy to get to be part of anything you are doing, Dr. David Capes.
David Capes
That’s very kind of you to say.
Mark Lanier
It’s true!
David Capes
You’re busy in so many things, and we’re doing some great things around here with the new Lanier Certificate in Theology and Ministry.
Mark Lanier
Which is busting at the seams, from all I hear.
David Capes
It seems to be, yes. We started off this past year, and we’ve had about six classes so far. And now, enrollment for all of them is full.
Mark Lanier
That is a tribute to, of course, you and so many others, but it’s also the power of God’s Word and the need to do some in-depth study to better appreciate how to live in the midst of a topsy-turvy world.
David Capes
Yes, it is that, isn’t it? Now you’ve written a series of devotional books. There’s five of them, up to this point. Tell us a little bit about the series, what inspired it, and then we’ll dig into the most recent edition, “New Testament Letters for Living.”
Mark Lanier
The series took birth after the first book had been written. The first book was one that I really wrote with an idea of trying to teach my adult children something about the Psalms in a way that would cause them to be devotional and reflective and prayerful on a daily basis. So, I wrote a book on the Psalms, and Baylor University Press (BUP) published it through one of their labels, and it did decently well. But it wasn’t written for anything more than for my kids.
And then over time, it occurred to me as I was talking to BUP, and they said, you know, would you be interested in doing another one? I thought, yeah, I’ll do another one, but I’ll do one on the Torah. I mean, who writes a daily devotional book that works through the pages of Leviticus?
David Capes
Some rabbi in the sixth century, maybe!
Mark Lanier
Yes. I think they even quit that by the 11th century! But it was such a wonderful chance for me to work through it in the Hebrew and to do it in a way that was convicting and speaks to today. And so we did that, and BUP published it. Then I thought, you know, a series of two isn’t really a series now, is it? So let’s do a third but, but I’ve done the Psalms, I’ve done the Torah. What I haven’t done is Jesus.
So, I did a third one on the teachings and words of Jesus and the actions of Jesus, and that one did decently well. So BUP was saying, hey, let’s do more. What else you got? I thought, all right, let’s go back to the Minor Prophets. Nobody does that. Nobody’s done that. So, I did the Minor Prophets. And I thought, boy, a series of four just doesn’t seem right. We need a fifth. And so that was the source of me thinking, let’s do the New Testament letters. I love those letters. And that was the genesis behind this book.
David Capes
Now you have five children as well.
Mark Lanier
Hey, that’s a very good point.
David Capes
You’ve got how many grandchildren?
Mark Lanier
I’ve got 11, and the 12th is due in three weeks.
David Capes
All right, so you’ve got to get started. You’ve got 12 more books to write.
Mark Lanier
I don’t know! I do have another one. The next one will be, God willing, on Old Testament narratives and the narrative stories that are outside the Torah. That means, Judges and Joshua, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah. I’ve written up through September. And what I’ve decided to do for the grandkids, because I don’t have 12 more books in me, is I am taking the teaching and devotional for that day, and I’m finding however many successive sentences I need where the first letter in each sentence will spell out their name. So, for example, my granddaughter, Chloe, on her birthday, if she’s reading carefully, she’ll see enough successive sentences in there that start with the letter C, followed by h, l, o, e.
David Capes
Are you going to make those stand out in some way?
Mark Lanier
No, absolutely not. They’ve got to find it. And once they do, I figure they’ll not only read their own and show their friends, but they’ll also look for their cousins’ birthdays to see if they can find the spelling of their names as well.
David Capes
That’s pretty complex when you think about it. But you know, the Psalms do things like that with acrostics and spelling.
Mark Lanier
They absolutely do. It’s a thoroughly legitimate thing to do.
David Capes
And it’s an art form in a way.
Mark Lanier
It makes it a bit poetic.
David Capes
It does. It adds to the poetry. And I think the Hebrew writers thought the same thing. So, you started this series with the book of James in January. James in January. J-J, is that it?
Mark Lanier
Well, no, I put them in what I think is perhaps an order in which they were written. So, a chronological order. We don’t really know. And I think if I were to redo it, I might flop Jude in 1 Peter. Because, you know, there’s different ways to see the dates, but I still am one who thinks James was first.
David Capes
A lot of people think that, and you may well be right. You followed up with Galatians and you go through every day, and interweaves personal stories with scripture, and then at the end of each one is a brief prayer. You go all the way through the year. I just made a little list of stories that you told in here: coaching baseball, doing math or as the Brits say, maths. You talk about Greco-Roman household, learning Greek, cultural things. You talked about the riddle of the sinks, which I didn’t know about. Thomas Edison, Paul Miori, and Noam Chomsky, are just some people you talk about. So, where do you find these really interesting illustrations that come to you?
